Fame and Fortune; Or, the Progress of Richard Hunter
1868
Fame and Fortune; Or, the Progress of Richard Hunter
1868
This sequel to "Ragged Dick" picks up with our主人公 as he leaves behind the streets and polish kit to chase something bigger: respectability, a steady paycheck, a future. Set in 1868 New York, the novel follows Richard Hunter and his friend Henry Fosdick as they navigate the jump from vagrant childhood to working-class ambition. These aren't sentimental tales of charity. They're about boys who know the city will eat them alive if they don't sharpen up, find good company, and work twice as hard as anyone expects. Alger wrote these stories to expose the twelve thousand homeless children wandering New York's streets, but what he created was something more enduring: the first great American myth of self-making. The prose is earnest and dated, yes, but the hunger at its core still resonates. If you've ever been broke, ambitious, and determined to prove the world wrong, you'll recognize something in Dick's climb.
